Plans for the Senate Appropriations Committee to approve a Justice Department funding bill collapsed on Thursday amid a Republican revolt over an amendment about where to put the new FBI headquarters.
Senate appropriators scattered from the meeting with no clear path forward on how to approve the broader fiscal 2026 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, a measure that had bipartisan support before friction over the amendment tanked its chances of being approved this week.
“Regrettably, I have to report that it was not possible in this amount of time to reach an agreement,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the head of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Democrats and Republicans fought on an amendment related to a Trump administration announcement changing the location of the new FBI headquarters from Greenbelt, Md., to the Ronald Reagan Building complex in downtown Washington.
The amendment, which was offered by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations subcommittee, would block funds from going to any other site besides the Greenbelt location. The amendment was narrowly adopted on a 15-14 vote, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, siding with Democrats on the committee.
Later on in the meeting, after the committee adopted the amendment, Republicans who initially supported the measure began to reverse their votes, unleashing confusion about the status of the $79.7 billion bill.
One of the Republican senators to flip his vote, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said the amendment from Van Hollen was a “poison pill.” That’s why senators were switching their votes, he said.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said Republicans don’t support the bill with that provision in it.
“The amendment essentially prevents the administration from moving the FBI headquarters to the Reagan Building, which we support. We’re for it, so we can’t support a bill that doesn’t allow that to go forward,” Hoeven said.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who leads the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee, said appropriators should not take a position on the location of the new FBI headquarters.
“So we’re at disagreement with the issue of the money that’s in our account — that doesn’t belong in our account — where it ought to go,” he said. “And there’s just a discussion about how to resolve that issue.”
“It’s really about the location,” he added.
The bill provides funding to the Commerce and Justice departments, NASA, the National Science Foundation and other agencies.
Debate
The friction at the committee meeting Thursday was the latest in a yearslong storyline over where to put a new FBI headquarters, a move officials say is needed because of the “crumbling” J. Edgar Hoover building on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington.
The General Services Administration in 2023 picked Maryland for the new FBI headquarters over Virginia, after a fierce, lengthy and high-profile competition over where the new facility would be built.
Lawmakers previously appropriated money with the understanding that it would go to the winner of the competition, Van Hollen has argued. He implied the change in location would allow the Trump administration to, in effect, rescind money provided by Congress.
“I would just, again, [caution] everybody about the precedent that will be set if we don’t stand up for congressional prerogatives in this case — FBI building today, projects in any other state tomorrow,” Van Hollen said.
Mullin said Congress should not “micromanage” the FBI’s site planning. “We need to allow them to make a decision,” he said.
But Van Hollen argued it’s not lawmakers deciding the location.
“We’re not selecting something. We’re upholding a decision that was made by the FBI and by the GSA based on all the inputs that they have to take into consideration,” Van Hollen said.
By the end of the meeting, it was clear lawmakers had not reached an agreement.
“[It’s] sad that one issue is sinking a bill that was completely bipartisan and strongly supported on both sides of the aisle,” Collins said.
Aidan Quigley contributed to this report.
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